The Louisiana State Cotton Museum in Lake Providence provides a great introduction to one of Louisiana’s major agricultural crops, and certainly the one for which the Delta area is best known. Its main gallery features an extensive set of interpretive exhibits, including life-sized dioramas, farming equipment, a re-created juke joint and more, all packed into a replica gin house (where cotton fiber was ginned, or separated from the seed). The original ginning machinery, or stand as it was called, complete in its vibrant yellow and red colors, gives the visitor a feel for the whole process. Also on the grounds of the museum is an impressive array of old plantation buildings, such as a sharecropper’s cabin and a small chapel, which help bring to life a rural world that has changed dramatically since the onset of tractor farming after World War II.